Haunted
by TornAngelWings
Summary: It didn't surprise him when he woke up the next morning to find Dino lying beside him. Even after death, Dino would always haunt him. DS. Character Death. Suicidal thoughts. Dino/Squalo.


It had only been two months ago.

Two fucking months.

The other driver was drunk out of his mind, when he drove straight through that blaring red light and totaled the sleek red Italian sports car, killing its driver instantly. The passenger was in critical condition, but alive; He wished he would have died, too.

The drunkard was shot on the spot by a sketchy ebony car which had been following the destroyed car since its departure that morning. One did not simply get away with slaughtering the Chiavarone Decimo, accident or planned.

Lying in the hospital room that smelled of disinfectants and chemicals, Squalo Superbi wished he died at Dino's side. At his lover's side.

As soon as his empty pale-blue eyes opened in the morning, he would stare at his flesh hand until a nurse physically tore his gaze away from it. That ring on his finger was mocking him, sending him visions of what could have been. Only a month away from the wedding date, and Dino had to go and fucking die.

The Varia's strategy captain tried numerous times to take his own life in that cold, unmerciful hospital. He had gotten so close- he swore he heard Dino's voice, felt his warm tattooed hand on his cheeks- when the nurse somehow managed to untangle the intricate knot Squalo had tied in his oxygen tubes. Another time he had nearly swallowed a cupful of bleach, but the doctor activated the shark's gag reflex just in the nick of time.

One day, when Belphegor had dropped in with an armful of cheesy, cliché gifts from the other Varia captains, Squalo point blank asked, "Why won't anyone let me go, dammit?" His voice was monotonous, expressionless. Bel's ever-present smile had faded, then.

Here he was. Finally declared sane and healthy by doctors, they had released him from the hospital. "You'll be okay, son." The elderly doctor clasped a hand on Squalo's shoulder. Had Squalo been younger, no, had he still had a fire burning in his soul, he would have shoved the man away and strode haughtily out. But the man was broken now, numb. He only nodded and slinked out, head down.

It didn't surprise him when he woke up the next morning to find Dino lying beside him. Even after death, Dino would always haunt him. Whether the image he was seeing was real or not did not matter to the Varia Rain.

Every day Squalo would open his eyes to find opaque ocher eyes framed by charcoal lashes locked on to his. Dino's lips would twist at the corners into that smirk that Squalo had grown to love, right before the hazy image would fade away.

Squalo was almost willing to continue on with his mundane life, if he was able to see Dino every morning.

Too bad all good things come to an end.

One particularly gloomy morning, when the sun was hidden behind think thunderclouds and the wind was uprooting trees by the dozens, Dino was not there.

Empty-eyed, Squalo made his way to the mirror of his bathroom and stared at his reflection. Calloused fingers ran up that dreadful scar that ran from his abdomen to his forehead, a painfully obvious reminder of what had transpired that day. Like a lifeless doll, Squalo went throughout his normal activities. He ignored the scorning looks from Xanxus, the mocking smile from Bel, the sympathetic and falsely motherly attentions from Lussuria…none of those things meant anything to him anymore.

That was his last day.

The next day, Lussuria went to wake him, only to find a cold corpse.

The doctors weren't sure how he died. There was nothing wrong with him physically, no signs of suicidal actions…

The Varia knew, though. The Vongola, the remains of the Chiavarone…everyone who knew Squalo knew.

He died of a broken heart.

They laid him in a grave beside Dino's. It was not customary to do so, but the Vongola Decimo and, surprisingly, the Varia leader, made arrangements for it to happen. Many gathered that day, to see the broken shark finally at peace beside his lover once again. They all remembered the noisy, arrogant shark-personified that had been a constant figure in the Vongola these past years. Takeshi and Xanxus wouldn't allow anyone to think of the quiet, resigned Squalo that had lingered in the corridors of the Varia headquarters these last few months. That was not their Squalo.

That Squalo had died when Dino had.

Takeshi gently laid Squalo's sword in the ground beside the casket, and the Varia boss shoveled the first bit of dirt on top of the coffin.

* * *

><p>"<em>Squalo…" the warm, familiar voice reached his ears. How could…? Oh, right. He was dead. "Squalo, " Dino's voice was more persistent. "I've come to take you home."<em>

_Home…?_

"_An eternity with me, what could be better?" Oh how he had missed that warm laugh… "C'mon. Everyone's done crying over you. It's time to pass on."_

_Voooiii, time to pass on._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source.<strong>__**  
><strong>__**It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing.**_

**- ****Anais Nin**

Author's Note: I was inspired by a random Dino/Squalo prompt I read the other day. I was crying the entire time while writing this. It's probably a bit rushed. Perhaps someday I'll re-write it. Who knows what the future holds…

I hope you enjoyed.

Love,

Tuna.


End file.
